Is There a Culture of Oppression?

I don't think the general idea of the happy slave is very plausible, I mean mostly I think it's a figment of the philosopher's imagination. But having said that there are situations in which somebody else is living a life that I might consider deeply oppressive. And she says to me, this is my choice, this is what I want to do. What then? In the end you have to listen to what people say. Of course there are all kinds of social policies that ought to be put into place to ensure that people really do have alternatives.